Writer / Janelle Morrison
Photographers / Kevin Foster & Lori Koppold
Becker Landscape, a family-owned business, began reshaping the greater metropolitan’s landscapes in 1976. The company, founded by John C. Becker and his five sons, started out of the family’s garage. Today, the founder’s son Larry Becker oversees the daily operations and has grown the family’s business to where it employs as many as 240 during their busy season.
Becker graduated from Purdue with a degree in Landscape Management and Design. Afterwards, Becker continued to work for his father and now presides as president and CEO. Both of his daughters work for the company, full-time, and sons work for the family when they are not attending school.
Integrity, attention to detail, customer satisfaction and customer retention are Becker Landscape’s key areas of focus as they continue to systematically grow their company. Becker and his team offer a complete line of both residential and commercial services, including lawn care, lawn maintenance, design/build, construction, tree care, irrigation, lighting and snow removal.
Becker Landscape has first rate educated and experienced employees to complement the services they provide, including professionally trained arborists, accredited and credentialed managers and supervisors, and fully trained, professional, and dedicated teams working onsite. Each client receives a customized program, customized exclusively for their unique landscaping needs.
When asked about trending installations, Becker said that the outdoor living areas are still the most requested installations by their residential customers.
“When we work with our clients, we sit down with them and one of our designers to discuss their ideas and how they plan to use their outdoor space,” Becker explained. “We try to identify and utilize the ‘bones’ of what currently exists and work with that. Trees are the clients’ most valuable asset in the landscape. While we try to work with the existing features, we also have clients who want or need to start completely fresh and new. We are able to accommodate our clients, whatever their needs and preferences are. We take a practical approach to each project. One can design anything but our specialty is building and maintaining it.”
Becker and his team work with clients to fully understand the project and desired outcome and set milestones right out of the gate to ensure everyone involved achieves those goals. This includes full commitment to building a meaningful relationship with the customer and maintaining it past the end of the project, whether residential or commercial.
“Landscapes, particularly in residential installations, are incredibly personal and intimate to our clients,” Becker stated. “We are creating these outdoor spaces as an extension of their homes. They use these spaces to relax or to entertain so we want to create high-quality features WITHIN functional spaces for them.”
Becker also works with clients who are not as concerned about an outdoor kitchen or fire pit area but are avid horticulturalists who want to design healing gardens or other specialty areas where they can cultivate their favorite species of exotic plants and other specialty vegetation including driving focused wildlife activity if desired.
For these clients, Becker and his specialists are able to offer recommendations for specific types of trees and plants that will attract several species of birds or other wild life if the client is interested in assisting the eco-system while designing their landscapes. Trees like the Grey Dogwood or Wild Cherry trees act as a single-source feeder to many native Indiana birds and are commonly included in the design process for this reason.
There are examples of Becker Landscape’s work all over central Indiana. Notable projects, including the landscaping along Georgia Street for the Super Bowl, the vegetation garden on the rooftop of Eskenazi Hospital, Saxony Park, both the residential and corporate park behind the I.U. Hospital, the new entrance to Mooresville, along Highway IN-67, and the Hamilton Town Center and the Palladium in Carmel, are just a few of the exquisite installations designed and completed by Becker Landscape.
“We are more than just contractors,” Becker said. “We are designers and specialists who work with our clients to create their own personal sanctuary, meditative gardens or ultimate outdoor living spaces and maintain them, using the same high-level of quality personnel and products as we would provide our commercial cliental.”
For more information on Becker Landscape and their full-service landscape and maintenance options, visit www.beckerlandscape.com.
